The Malazan Empire Series: (Night of Knives, Return of the Crimson Guard, Stonewielder, Orb Sceptre Throne, Blood and Bone, Assail) (Novels of the Malazan Empire)

by Ian C. Esslemont

The youth bowed. ‘At your service.’

  The lieutenant laughed a harsh bray and raised his glass in salute.

  ‘And you?’ Torbal demanded of Orchid.

  ‘She’s a mage of Rashan,’ Antsy said before she could answer.

  Torbal’s heavy mouth twisted his irritation. ‘This true? If not, I’ll kill you myself.’

  ‘I have some small gifts, yes,’ she stammered.

  He grunted, unimpressed. ‘Well … it’s the usual deal. You swear to fight for me and you’ll receive your fair share of food and shares in the profits. As you can see, we control the majority of the Spawn. Most of all that is worth anything is with us. Fight well and eventually your original gear will be returned. Though,’ and he glared at Antsy, ‘not all of it. Desertion is of course punishable by immediate execution,’ he added, continuing to give Antsy a hard eye.

  ‘For a share of the total profits I’m your man,’ Antsy said.

  ‘As am I,’ Corien added.

  ‘And I.’

  ‘Now,’ Torbal began, picking up a star fruit and examining it.

  ‘Our lookouts report that there was someone else with you … what happened to him?’

  Antsy could not take his eyes from the ripe yellow star-shaped fruit. ‘He ran off.’

  ‘Ran off? You won’t mind then if we have a look for him?’

  Antsy kept his face dead straight as he said: ‘No. We don’t mind at all.’

  ‘Where do you get all this food?’ Corien breathed, his voice thick with longing.

  Torbal’s expression said that he was very pleased his little demonstration had had the desired effect. He sat back and took a bite of the fruit. ‘I have contacts with the Confederation boys. For a few trinkets I get regular shipments. My people eat well – remember that.’ He gestured to the lieutenant.

  ‘Get them rooms.’

  The lieutenant pushed himself up. ‘Let’s go.’

  He marched them back through the rambling living quarters. Antsy quickly became lost though he was doing his best to keep his bearings; he suspected the man was leading them in circles. Eventually he stopped before a portal covered by a hanging – a hacked portion of a tapestry that must once have been worth a fortune before such desecration. ‘You have a name?’ Antsy asked him.

  The man pulled off his helmet and shook out long thick hair around his scarred and pitted face. ‘Otan.’

  ‘Otan of Genalle?’

  ‘The same.’

  ‘You gave us – ah, the Malazans – a lot of trouble.’

  ‘I still do,’ the man said, eyeing Antsy with obvious distaste. ‘Listen … Torbal says you live for now, but I don’t like you. Spy or deserter, whichever you are. I’ll be keeping an eye on you. Be sure of that.’

  ‘That’ll keep me warm at night, friend.’

  ‘We’ll settle this. Don’t worry. We’ll settle up.’ He ambled off, his armour rattling and creaking.

  It was a plain living chamber. A side room allowed the option of privacy for Orchid. They remained together in the main room talking in low voices while Corien kept a watch at the hanging.

  ‘What now?’ Orchid asked. ‘We’re captives.’

  ‘Are we at the top?’ Antsy asked.

  ‘No. According to all the descriptions I’ve heard there’s still a way to go.’

  ‘Thought so.’

  ‘Why?’

  He gestured back the way they’d come. ‘I didn’t think this lot would be in charge.’

  ‘They have a lot of swords,’ Corien pointed out.

  ‘Yeah. But they’re fighting someone for control of the rock.’

  ‘Who?’

  Antsy rubbed his slick forehead; his fingers came away greasy and sticky. He sighed. ‘I think maybe Malazans.’

  ‘Malazans?’ Orchid echoed in disbelief.

  ‘Yeah.’ Antsy sat on a stone sleeping ledge. ‘I heard that a while back a Malazan man-of-war bulled its way through to here. That would be maybe some two hundred fighting men. That’s why old Otan there’s accusing me of being a spy.’

  Corien raised a hand for silence. Someone approached and he opened the hanging. It was a slave, a skinny crippled fellow with one hand and one bandaged eye. He was hugging a platter containing a hunk of cheese, dry hardtack, smoked meat, and a ceramic pot of water.

  ‘What’s your story, old man?’ Antsy asked him.

  The man’s answer was the sad wreckage of a smile. A stream of clear fluid ran down his cheek from under the bandage. ‘Came out to make out my fortune. Like a gold rush, everyone said. Jewels to be plucked from the streets of the Spawn.’ With his remaining hand he gestured to himself. ‘But, as I found, riches don’t come cheap.’

  ‘I hear you, old man. What about weapons?’

  ‘When there’s an attack.’

  Corien swore, then apologized to Orchid.

  ‘An attack?’ Antsy continued. ‘Who?’

  The man shook his battered head. ‘Can’t say. Talk means punishment. ’

  ‘I understand. Thanks for the food.’

  The old fellow bowed and padded off into the darkness. Antsy used his short eating knife to cut slices from the lump of cheese. Chewing, he squinted into the dark side room. ‘I think your night vision thing is still working, Orchid.’

  ‘Me too,’ Corien affirmed.

  ‘Good,’ she said bleakly.

  Antsy turned his squint on her. ‘Could you give us darkness?’

  ‘There’s plenty of that.’

  He cut and handed out slivers of the hard meat. Tasting it he wasn’t sure what it was. Horse? ‘No. Real darkness. The kind light can’t penetrate – would we still be able to see in that?’

  ‘I think so, yes. I believe you should.’

  ‘Good. That might be enough to get us out of here.’

  ‘Darkness?’ Corien said. ‘We have no weapons.’

  ‘Then we’ll bash people over the head and take theirs!’ Antsy answered, a touch irritated.

  Corien inclined his head. ‘Of course. A sophisticated plan. When?’

  Antsy scratched his own thickening beard. ‘Yeah. When. Common wisdom says we should wait a while – look like we’re fitting in. But I can’t shake the feeling that time’s not on our side. This whole rock is unstable. Who knows what might happen to it? Every day we’re stuck here we’re tempting Oponn and I don’t like that.’

  ‘So … we don’t wait?’

  ‘No.’ He wrapped the food to pack it away. ‘We go now.’

  ‘But our supplies. Your munitions!’

  ‘I’m happier keeping my head, thanks.’

  Corien smiled his rueful admiration. ‘You’ve weathered more reversals than we have, Red.’

  Antsy shoved the food into a roll of the tattered blankets and tied it off. ‘Aw, Hood. It ain’t Red. It’s Antsy.’

  The youth and Orchid shared a glance of suppressed humour. ‘Well,’ Corien said, ‘we knew it wasn’t Red.’

  ‘So,’ Orchid whispered, facing Antsy. ‘What do we do?’

  He moved to the hanging and motioned to Corien. ‘Snuff the light.’

  Corien wet his fingers and pinched the wick of twisted hemp. In the bloom of utter dark Antsy waited for his vision to adjust. Eventually the faint blue glow returned and the walls and his companions slowly emerged from the gloom as if wavering into existence. He raised his hands to the Darujhistani aristocrat, who nodded his affirmation.

  Orchid came up. ‘Now?’ she whispered.

  He motioned a negative. ‘Let’s give it a while. Maybe they’ll think we’re sleeping.’

  She was standing so close her thick mane of black hair brushed his ear, sending a shiver down his frame. He suddenly became very aware of the warmth of her body so close. The smell of her sweat was a pleasure to him. It reminded him of some rare spice. He turned his face away, clearing his throat. Ye gods, man. Get a grip.

  ‘So,’ he began, his voice thick and hoarse, ‘Morn thought you part Andii. What do you think?’

  Her dark
eyes sought his but he resolutely kept them on the hall. ‘It feels right. I guess I’d never thought about it until he said it. It explains a lot of things.’

  He leaned back against the side of the portal. ‘Never thought about it? Who raised you, then?’

  ‘I grew up in what I know now was some sort of temple, or religious community. The priests and priestesses were my parents and teachers. I never left it. As I grew older I explored a bit and found that the temple was on an island. A very small island. After that I suppose I just contented myself with learning about the world through the stories and texts in the temple. That and my teachers.’

  ‘Who taught you the Andii tongue, and their letters.’

  ‘And their literature and legends and mythology.’

  ‘That didn’t make you wonder?’

  She cocked her head aside in the darkness, considering. ‘No. Should it have? I just thought it was normal. I thought everyone learned these things. There was nothing to compare it to. Now, I suppose that must have been a temple to Elder Dark.’ She shook her head, a regretful smile at her lips. ‘I’m not the first to discover that most of what I’ve been taught was either wrong, irrelevant, or insane.’

  Antsy nodded at that. Yeah. Parents and family work their craziness too. Gods, just look at Spindle.

  ‘There’s more, of course,’ she continued, sounding puzzled. ‘Other strange things that I still can’t understand. I seem to remember …’ She shifted, uneasy.

  ‘You don’t have to go on,’ Antsy murmured, keeping his gaze fixed on the dark hall. ‘I understand. But maybe I can help you sort through it.’

  She let out a steadying breath, her lips clenched, then nodded. ‘I had many teachers. They seemed to come and go.’

  ‘Uh-huh. And this is strange?’

  ‘Antsy … They were young when they came and when they left … they were old.’

  He forced himself to swallow to wet his suddenly dry throat. ‘Ah. That is strange. You sure … ?’

  ‘Yes. And I seem to remember it happening many times.’

  Antsy let out a sound as if thinking that through. Queen release me! When will I learn to keep my damned mouth shut? ‘Well … Andii are long-lived, right? There you go.’ Hood! This ‘child’ is probably more than twice my age! What’s she been learning all that time? ‘Listen. Maybe that’s enough for—’

  The jarring clanging of metal on metal blasted through the Spawn’s steady background noise of groans and clatterings. Corien leapt to his feet. Shouts sounded up the hall and quite a few screams as well. A figure stepped into the hall, shouted: ‘C’mon, you lot! It’s the alarm. Let’s go!’

  Their watcher. Antsy nodded to Orchid. ‘Put a darkness here in the hall.’

  She shut her eyes, murmuring, and all the faint glow of distant lights disappeared. The man peered about, panicked. ‘What in the Abyss …’

  Antsy made for him. The fellow heard his approach and went for his sword but he was obviously blind so Antsy kicked him in the groin then kneed him in the face, shattering the cartilage of his nose and possibly killing him. He took the man’s weapons while he lay stunned.

  ‘Which way?’ he called to Orchid. She pointed up the other way. He gave the sword to Corien, kept a fighting dirk. ‘I’ll lead. Corien, watch the rear.’

  As they traced halls and turned corners, it appeared to him that Orchid was attempting to lead them round the settlement. He was happy with that because occasional blasts and screams reached them from whatever was going on over at one side of the complex. But as Orchid took longer and longer to chose directions the noise steadily became louder with each length of empty hall or chamber traversed and the yellow glow of lanterns and lamps thickened. By the time she came to a full halt in a narrow chamber whose only other exit was an open portal, he could make out the thumping release of crossbows, the ringing of iron from stone, shouts, and, above all, an argument of some sort between a high strident harridan’s voice and a much lower, deeper and fainter man’s voice.

  ‘This is not the way!’ the woman screeched.

  ‘Let us hear what our guide has to say,’ the man murmured.

  ‘Fire!’ a voice bellowed, Otan’s, and volley of crossbows released, the bolts clattering from stone.

  ‘Aiya!’ the woman yelled. ‘Who are these wretches?’

  ‘Indigenes? Perhaps?’

  ‘Indigenes? Are you brainless? These are not Andii!’

  ‘Yet strictly speaking … are they not the new residents here?’

  What in the name of Oponn … ? Antsy edged forward to peer round the lip of the opening. What in the name of Oponn was all this? It gave access to a large hall, what seemed a main boulevard faced by many building fronts carved from the stone of the Spawn. Bodies lay scattered among wreckage across the floor. Lanterns lay fallen, spilled oil burning to send up clouds of black smoke that obscured the high ceiling.

  Two figures faced each other in the centre of the hall. One, the old woman, wore an eye-watering costume of all shades of red, complete with a headdress of fluttering crimson ribbons, and what appeared to be carmine gloves on her hands. The other was a short round ball of a man, bland-faced, in layered dark robes, his hands clasped across his broad front as if to hold it in from bursting.

  So amazed by these two was Antsy that he failed to notice a third figure scuttling up the hall, staring at him, his eyes huge and his mouth open. ‘Kill that man!’ this fellow howled, pointing.

  Antsy flinched – and met the glaring eyes of the young thief from Hurly. Great Burn! What was that fool’s name? Jallin! Yes, that’s right.

  The lad ran to the squabbling pair, still pointing. ‘Kill him, mistress!’

  The woman took a swipe at him that he ducked. ‘Shut up, fool. Does the way go on?’

  ‘Yes,’ the youth snarled.

  Armour clattering announced another file of crossbowmen led by Otan crossing the hall.

  Gotta give the man credit for guts.

  ‘Hesta …’ the fat man murmured.

  The woman threw her hands in the air. ‘Oh, cursed gods above! More of them?’

  She lowered her arms, palms out. Orchid yanked on the back of Antsy’s armour. ‘Down!’ she hissed. Like an upended forge, flames came billowing up the wide boulevard. Men and women screamed, dark shapes consumed by the churning yellow and orange.

  A furnace’s searing heat crackled at Antsy’s arms, which he had thrown up to protect his head, and then with a redoubled avalanche roar the radiance disappeared, leaving him blinking, momentarily blinded. The cackle of the youth sounded in the sudden silence, followed by a slap that cut it off. ‘Show us!’ the woman commanded.

  ‘Perhaps they merely wished to talk,’ the man’s voice reached them, retreating.

  ‘Oh, shut up!’

  Antsy dared raise his head. Flames lit a scene out of Hood’s own realm. Burning corpses and furnishings sent smoke curling up into the thickening miasma choking the air. He didn’t like the way it just hung there. No outlet.

  Orchid was crushing the burnt ends of her frazzled hair. ‘I’m sorry, Antsy,’ she said, sounding miserable.

  ‘Sorry for what?’

  She raised her soot-smeared chin to the boulevard. ‘That’s the way up.’

  Somehow I knew she was going to say that.

  Bendan gave his name to everyone in the Malazan camp as ‘Butcher’. His own squad didn’t use it any more now that they’d reached the main rendezvous south-west of Dhavran. They’d used it for a while after that last engagement and during the march, and it had been among the happiest times of his life. It even rivalled the feeling of belonging and safety he’d known among his peers in the mud ways and alleys of Maiten town. He’d revelled in it those few years alongside his brothers and sisters, jumping rival gangs and cleaning out anyone not a local and foolish enough to wander into their territory. He’d felt untouchable then, utterly secure. Wanted and appreciated. Valued, even, it seemed to him now, looking back. He’d gone from worthless to val
ued. When they’d all been together on the street they could stomp on anyone’s face and no one dared say anything! He remembered how Biter and Short Legs had held one kid down and invited him to lay in. And he’d kicked and kicked on and on until the kid coughed up an explosion of blood and never moved any more. How they’d all laughed! Good times then.

  Now when I say ‘Butcher’s the name’ I just get funny looks. Even outright laughs. What’s wrong with everyone? There’s a guy in the 10th named ‘Rabbit.’ What kinda name’s that for a soldier?

  His squad spent the days digging a big-arse ditch to surround the new fort. Other squads were dragging logs from the nearest woods, raising a palisade. It was a damned crowded camp: all the remnants of the Second, Fifth, and Sixth from Pale all jammed together in one round hilltop surrounded by a deep ditch that put the top of the palisade logs a good three man-heights above the heads of any attacker. And on top of that Fist Steppen had them sharpening a forest of stakes to set leaning out like the quills on one of them mythical spiny lizards.

  It was gettin’ so troops were starting to call her ‘Scaredy-Step’. Bendan just called her a dumb-arse granma hiding behind her walls when everyone knew the way to win was to go break heads. He had said as much to his squaddies and Corporal Little had come back with some watery talk about how winning was control of ground, not battles. Ground? He understood that. In Maiten town he and his brothers and sisters had had theirs – and defending it meant fighting! You had to be out there every day showing those rivals you were strong and so crazy-arse violent they’d better leave you alone. That he knew and understood.

  Then Corporal Little had said something really loopy. She said that the best way to win was not to have to fight at all! How the fuck was that possible? You had to fight to win. You had to tear the head off the other guy – otherwise it was you without a head! He was starting to suspect that maybe Little was some kinda gutless woman hiding behind her fancy book-learned ideas.

  Not to mention how she slapped his hand away when he grabbed her tit. Imagine that? Turning him down? Back in Maiten town every girl he cornered went along with it in the end. All it took was a little playful arm-twisting – not like he was gonna really hurt them. This corporal must prefer women, not like a proper gal at all.